


one and one and one is three

by DuendeJunior



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel), DRAMAtical Murder - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, quite a lot of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-28
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-09 09:58:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3245435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuendeJunior/pseuds/DuendeJunior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Noiz and Clear visit Clear's house at the disposal yard, and a proposal is made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	one and one and one is three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sugarblues](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarblues/gifts).



> Found this buried on my gdrive and remembered I meant to post it here a long time ago, so I'm taking advantage of the fact that it's 1 PM and that's the only time of the day when I feel secure to post fanfic anywhere. I revised it again, but feel free to point any errors I might have overlooked. The rating is just because of Noiz and the things he insinuates, sorry.
> 
> Based on old Twitter convos with friends (Julian and Nara, love you both), and one of them involved Clear and the idea of personhood and people acknowledging him as a person, so there's a small bit on the text where he debates it with himself. It didn't fit in the tags, so I'm warning here.
> 
> And one day I might post something that's not tooth-rotting fluff, but not today.

-

Noiz hadn’t said anything since they got to where Clear’s house was located.  
  
It was hard to say whether he was displeased with anything or interested, but uncomfortable to be the one to break the silence - Clear recalled Aoba’s complaints about Noiz’s good poker face during a night where they put Rhyme aside in favor of playing cards. His face as he looked at the various objects Clear had pointed to him since they entered the waste disposal yard was much like that one.  
  
“And this here is my grandpa’s mirror”, Clear said, touching the big metal frame. “Aoba-san helped me clean this one too”.  
  
Noiz’s stuck his hands on the pockets of his slacks, and his low “hm” was the only indication that he had heard and understood what Clear said. He stood in front of the mirror, looking up and down at the white sheet that covered its surface.  
  
“Did you two do anything else with the mirror or did you just clean it?”, Noiz asked with a side-glance at Clear.  
  
“Well… We did stop when we got to this mirror”, Clear began. “I wanted to see my face for the first time on a mirror I already knew. And...”. He put his hands on his own pockets. “Aoba-san being here helped very much. He didn’t hate my face when he saw me without the gas mask back at Glitter, and he didn’t hate it when we looked into this mirror.”  
  
He didn’t look at Noiz as he said this, choosing to focus on the bright day just outside of the window. He remembered his grandpa saying he shouldn’t show his face to anyone, not even to himself; the days seen and felt through thick plastic lenses and a straw on a gas mask.  
  
He knew it had been all for his protection, but knowing the facts was one thing. Expressing what happened and how he felt about that, or even if he had any right to feel anything at all… That was a completely different matter.  
  
“Tsc”, Noiz said, and then he nudged Clear with his shoulder, startling him. “I imagined you two weren’t the type to get freaky with a mirror.”  
  
Clear looked at him in puzzlement, brows furrowed, until he understood the innuendo.  
  
“Noiz-san!”, he protested, a tad flustered. He vaguely recalled Aoba saying he shouldn’t drop his guard when talking to “ _that damn perverted brat. He might look like a respectable businessman now, but he’s still lewd_ ”, and now he kind of understood why. But Clear also had the impression there was also something like affection in his eyes and in his tone, which he thought softened the teasing a bit.

It read like one of those times when Aoba would give a big smile – or, sometimes, a deep frown - and deflect the subject so no one would feel discomfort or make someone else feel it.

Smiling a little, Clear took a step back and sat on the bed.  
  
“So”, Noiz started again, turning his back to Clear to hunch over the dresser and look at the various jars. “Do you have a suitcase anywhere?”  
  
“I think the one grandpa had is still under the bed. Why?”  
  
“Then pack everything you think you’ll need from here; you’re going home with me.”  
  
Clear’s eyes widened.  
  
“... _What?_ ”  
  
“You heard me”, Noiz said, back still turned.  
  
“But Noiz-san! I can’t do this now! Why...?”

He was too surprised to form more words, and a tense silence descended upon the room. That, and Clear’s finely tuned ears, made it easy to hear Noiz’s quiet sigh as he turned to face him, leaning backwards on the dresser.  
  
“I understand this is your grandpa’s house, and I promise won’t let anything happen to it. I plan to buy the whole yard and then let you decide what you want to do with it. But this is no place for a person to live.”  
  
They stared at each other from across the room.  
  
 _For a person to live_.

 _A person_.

The words echoed on Clear’s mind. He could feel his heart race and his lower lip trembled a bit.  
  
“Noiz-san…”, he said in a low voice. He lowered his head, letting his hair hide his face. “... But am I truly a person, Noiz-san? Aoba-san is convinced I am, and he taught me so much about these things. But...”, he trailed off, not sure how to string together the words to express everything he wanted to say.

After all, his whole physical being was solid metal, with eletricity running through circuits and refined almost to the point of perection - and that “almost” was part of what had gotten him there. Who was to say that now he didn’t belong there, in the waste dispose yard, along with everything else that didn’t work properly anymore?  
  
Even knowing his grandpa had loved him once… How many things were also said to be loved before ending there?  
  
He heard Noiz sigh again.  
  
“During that whole business with Platinum Jail, Aoba also reached out to me”, he started. Clear raised his head a bit to cast a glance at him, watching as he ran a hand through his hair. “Even now, if I said I fully understand why he did that I’d be lying, but… I’m grateful he did. He was the first to acknowledge me as a person in a long time.”  
  
Noiz shuffled his feet.  
  
“I guess it doesn’t hurt if I follow his example and do the same to someone who needs it. So, if it helps… In my book, you count as a person and deserves to be treated as such.”  
  
Clear bit his lip. He felt his eyes watering, and also an increasing desire to laugh, but settled for a wobbly smile.  
  
“Thank you, Noiz-san.”  
  
Noiz shrugged, a bit embarrassed, and coughed.  
  
“OK, then. Where’s your suitcase again?”  
  
“Oh, yeah!” Clear climbed out of bed and, getting on all fours, lifted the covers a few inches from the ground to check whether or not it was there. “Yes, it’s here!”  
  
“Then pick your stuff and pack, please.”  
  
It didn’t took much time for Clear to pack; he had more clothes than he remembered, but one case was more than enough for everything. It had been enough time for Noiz to start complaining that the sheer amount of dust around them would make his nose fall off, but Clear also remembered Aoba mentioning how grumpy Noiz could get sometimes.  
  
“I’m going to call someone to clean everything again”, Noiz said when Clear closed the suitcase. “And get someone to take the mirror home, too.”  
  
“Huh? Don’t you have any mirrors in your flat, Noiz-san?”  
  
“Well, there’s a mirror on the bathroom, a medium one”, Noiz replied, looking desponded by the very memory of it. “But this one you have here is something else.”  
  
Clear looked back at the big structure draped in white, and then back at Noiz, puzzled. Noiz had a small smirk on his face.

“It will be in your room, after all it’s your stuff, but I might try and convince Aoba to experiment some things with it.” A pause. “You can also join us if you want.”  
  
“... Join you two in what?”, Clear asked, before paying attention to Noiz’s expression - specifically, to his cheeky eyebrow waggle. He felt flustered again. “Do you think Aoba-san is going to accept that?”

“We’ll never know if we never ask. Or…”

“Or…?”

“We can maybe start with a cuddle pile and work from there. I don’t know.”

“... It doesn’t have to be a literal pile, does it?” Clear thought about the difference in weight between him, Noiz and Aoba for a moment. “I could crush someone and...”

Noiz raised a finger, and Clear stopped talking. Then, without another word, he raised his wrist, touched his Coil and tapped some words on the virtual keyboard. In seconds, a picture appeared in front of him and he turned it towards Clear so he could have a better look.

“As you can see, not necessarily”, Noiz finally said when Clear started cooing at the sight of bunnies snuggled close side by side. “The ‘pile’ bit is not really literal.”

“Ah, Noiz-san! Now this idea sounds really nice!”

“And my bed is big enough for this kind of thing, so”, Noiz said, with a small smile and a face that broadcasted loud and clear how pleased he was about the outcome of the whole situation. “Now, are we going home or not?”

“Yes!”, Clear said, grabbing his suitcase and following Noiz out of the house.

He couldn’t wait to convince Aoba to join their future cuddle pile.


End file.
